Momof3greatkids
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2004
I know several people are anxious to hear about the Rhine River Cruise, so I will give you a few brief details below. I am very jet lagged, so it won't be too long. If anyone has questions let me know, and I will try to answer.
Embarkation: Ship is open at 9:30am. 2 transports are given from Raddison Blu which is Disney's pre-night Hotel. One is at noon and the other at 2pm. Sandwiches, soup, and dessert is available onboard, followed by tea at 4pm. Cocktails and finger foods at 6pm along with saftey, crew, and guide introductions.
Activities: Disney still has a few kinks in everyone getting the activities they want. They now give you a Disney Character and call groups at random starting at 2:30pm. This takes until at least 6pm as many people are slow in deciding and have no idea what is even offered, and then want to co-ordinate large groups at once. The last people called again had trouble getting what they wanted. Disney made efforts to fix this by adding more bikes, scheduling extra macaroon classes in town and on the boat, Having 2 Van Gough art classes, trying to get extra transportation, and hoping others would change their minds. The problem, per the guides, is with almost 160 guests on board they have trouble figuring out how many people are going to want to do which activity. They said the patterns have been different for each cruise. So, they have trouble planning. Most of this worked out during the week, but not all of it per other guests. As far as individual activities I will comment on a few. Horseback riding was a mess, the stable was not ready at all, and most of the time was spent waiting on them to saddle horses, and then you where led into a very muddy area to mount. An older lady's horse was stung by a bee and the horse starting bucking and the horse rolled her onto the ground. She was black and blue from this, and Disney had the boat give her a massage to help. The trail ride was short, with no English speaking guides, and horses being led over a foggy road, which most thought was dangerous. Zipling was alot of fun but the excursion took till 8pm because it took so long for everyone to get down the ziplines. Porsche and BMW trip was another long trip as Stuggart has terrible traffic. Heidleberg was great with plenty of time to visit the old town, and 3 buses leaving back to the boat so everyone could leave at their leisure. Strasbourg was also a great stop with the boat tour having an excellent local guide. Windmills, clog decorating, and cheese demonstartion where in a very touristy area, with warnings to watch out for pick pockets, and it ran late. Excursions leave very early and everyone was very tired on the boat. Timing is still an issue with Disney needing to work on getting everyone done on time.
Guides: Very hard working and always trying to please. Only problem we had was that one of them announced to the entire boat he was going to be a father as his girlfriend was pregnant. He is a very nice guy, but not everyone is happy for their children to learn the guide's girlfriend is pregnant.
Boat: Lovely and very hard working crew. Food was not great in our opinion, but plentiful. But, that is a subject everyone has their own opinion on. However, big warning: we where on deck 3 directly under the walking/jogging track and to say when people used that was noisy and disruptive is an understatement. Our entire ceiling shook over and over again in the afternoons as some teenage girls ran around on it. From 10pm until 8am they ask people to stay off the upper deck because of this problem. However, it is impossible to have peace in the afternoons in a room under the track.
Disembarkation: Easy and luggage was picked up in the morning of the last day based on departure time. Everyone had color coded luggage tags for where their luggage was to go.
Let me know of any questions.
Embarkation: Ship is open at 9:30am. 2 transports are given from Raddison Blu which is Disney's pre-night Hotel. One is at noon and the other at 2pm. Sandwiches, soup, and dessert is available onboard, followed by tea at 4pm. Cocktails and finger foods at 6pm along with saftey, crew, and guide introductions.
Activities: Disney still has a few kinks in everyone getting the activities they want. They now give you a Disney Character and call groups at random starting at 2:30pm. This takes until at least 6pm as many people are slow in deciding and have no idea what is even offered, and then want to co-ordinate large groups at once. The last people called again had trouble getting what they wanted. Disney made efforts to fix this by adding more bikes, scheduling extra macaroon classes in town and on the boat, Having 2 Van Gough art classes, trying to get extra transportation, and hoping others would change their minds. The problem, per the guides, is with almost 160 guests on board they have trouble figuring out how many people are going to want to do which activity. They said the patterns have been different for each cruise. So, they have trouble planning. Most of this worked out during the week, but not all of it per other guests. As far as individual activities I will comment on a few. Horseback riding was a mess, the stable was not ready at all, and most of the time was spent waiting on them to saddle horses, and then you where led into a very muddy area to mount. An older lady's horse was stung by a bee and the horse starting bucking and the horse rolled her onto the ground. She was black and blue from this, and Disney had the boat give her a massage to help. The trail ride was short, with no English speaking guides, and horses being led over a foggy road, which most thought was dangerous. Zipling was alot of fun but the excursion took till 8pm because it took so long for everyone to get down the ziplines. Porsche and BMW trip was another long trip as Stuggart has terrible traffic. Heidleberg was great with plenty of time to visit the old town, and 3 buses leaving back to the boat so everyone could leave at their leisure. Strasbourg was also a great stop with the boat tour having an excellent local guide. Windmills, clog decorating, and cheese demonstartion where in a very touristy area, with warnings to watch out for pick pockets, and it ran late. Excursions leave very early and everyone was very tired on the boat. Timing is still an issue with Disney needing to work on getting everyone done on time.
Guides: Very hard working and always trying to please. Only problem we had was that one of them announced to the entire boat he was going to be a father as his girlfriend was pregnant. He is a very nice guy, but not everyone is happy for their children to learn the guide's girlfriend is pregnant.
Boat: Lovely and very hard working crew. Food was not great in our opinion, but plentiful. But, that is a subject everyone has their own opinion on. However, big warning: we where on deck 3 directly under the walking/jogging track and to say when people used that was noisy and disruptive is an understatement. Our entire ceiling shook over and over again in the afternoons as some teenage girls ran around on it. From 10pm until 8am they ask people to stay off the upper deck because of this problem. However, it is impossible to have peace in the afternoons in a room under the track.
Disembarkation: Easy and luggage was picked up in the morning of the last day based on departure time. Everyone had color coded luggage tags for where their luggage was to go.
Let me know of any questions.